Omaha daily bee., 1887-06-23
OH ReplaCing Coal,

Inc recent SUCCESSFUL experiment OF Gne
Pennsylvania railroad IN running train
from Altoona to Pittsburg with petroleum
as fuel instead of coal, has attracted at
tention as probably foreshadowing a
most important departure in the matter
of supplying power to locomotives in this
country. The oil was carried in the
tender, and only about twelve barrels
were used in travelling the 116 miles.
There was not the slightest difficulty ex-
per,enced from tho substitution of oil for
coal. 1t Is very likely that the success of
this experiment will lead to a gradually
extended use of oil for this purpose, the
wonder being that it has not before been
thus employed, at least in the state of
which petroleum is SO large product.
1t seems that this successful
experiment cannot be regarded
as a discovery. an example having been
set in Russia, on the railroads In the re-
gion between the Black and Caspian
seas, as long ago as 1884. Later oil re.
siduum was used In locomotives ON the
Transcaucasian and Transcaspian rail
ways, as we'll as in the furnaces of steam.
boats on the Caspian sea and on the
Volga river. On the railways of Sweden,
on the roads between Alexandria and
Cairo, Moscow and Teheran, New and
Batoum, oil has been almost wholly used
in pl ace of coal for year or two past.
1t has been successfully employed with
great ecohomical advantages on the ferry
steamers of the Central Pacific railroad
at San Francisco, and the record every.
where is that it effects great saving as
compared with coal. In view OF the sue.
cess that has attended its use as fuel
for motor engines. its economy, and other
advantages, 1t Is little singular
that its application to this purpose had
not become more general IN this country,
and that in this particular we should be
go far behind Europe. Now, however,
that the Pennsylvania road has taken the
initiative, with entirely satisfactory re-
suits, it may be expected that it will
| speedily find numerous imitators.
With natural gas supplanting co al as a
factory fuel, and petroleum repla cling 1t
in running locomotives and steamships,
the coal industry would seem to be
threatened with serious deterioration.
But every stop In the progress Of discov.
l
more to meet the endless necessities of
man, the active competitions of the age,
and the economies toward which all the
efforts OF science are directed. 1t
must not be assumed, therefore,
that the demand for coal will
cease because it may ultimately be no
longer required for purposes it now sup
plies 1t has been demonstrated that the
manufacture of cheap fuel gas from coal
Is feasible, and it is only a question OF
time when all over the country, outside
of natural gas territory this cheap gas
will be produced for manufacturing and
domestic purposes,-for both fuel and
light. The economy of its use will make
It available to hundreds of communities
to which gas for any purpose is now un.
known, and thus new necessity will
have been created that will make an
added demand upon the means necessary
to supply it. In the discovery of new
forces and aids to material progress none
of the bounties OF nature will be aban
doned or rendered loss valua BILE. but
rather utilized to better and wider al
| vantage,